294 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 347. 



differences among men are all traceable to the 

 action of climate and education (p. 96). The 

 Germans and the Scandinavians are, together 

 with the Latins, the representatives of the same 

 Mediterranean race, which, according to the 

 most accepted view (Sergi, Ripley) was the 

 primitive inhabitant of Europe. The so-called 

 northern peoples are merely that part of the 

 original racial stock that went north and became 

 fair-haired, taller and dolicocephalic through 

 the combined action of climate, social environ- 

 ment and natural selection (p. 97). This leads 

 Mosso to refute the legend of Latin decline and 

 to discard the assumption that there exists a 

 congenitally organic difference between the 

 Americans — as representing the northern races 

 — and southern or Latin races. 



While we agree with Mosso in his refutation 

 of the fantastic theories of Ammon and La- 

 pouge, we cannot leave unchallenged a state- 

 ment made at the very beginning of this inter- 

 esting chapter. Mosso says (p. 79) that "a 

 physiologist cannot possibly admit the exist- 

 ence of differences among white men in regard 

 to the aptitudes of the nervous system. So- 

 ciologists," he says, "are largely responsible 

 for the widespread belief that the causes of 

 historical facts should be traced to different im- 

 pulses originating from an alleged structural 

 dissimilarity of the nervous system. ' ' Without 

 admitting the skull theory and all the nonsense 

 connected with it, we cannot deny the existence 

 of two mental types, a motor and a sensory, 

 to which correspond, on the volitional side, the 

 impulsive and the obstructed, as masterfully de- 

 scribed by James. Now, these mental types can- 

 not but be the outcome of some peculiarity in the 

 ultimate structure of the nervous system. There 

 must be some deep physiological condition to ac- 

 count for the fact that in one set of brains we have 

 a quicker discharge into the muscles than in an- 

 other set where we have a distinct damming up 

 of the nervous impulse. We are as yet unable 

 to determine what this deep-seated peculiarity 

 is. Probably we have to deal with a chemical 

 problem, and the difference between the two 

 classes of brains in question is in some way 

 related to the metabolism of the nervous ele- 

 ment. The fact, however, is undeniable and 

 Mosso, as a physiologist, cannot possibly think 



that these two mental types have no physiolog- 

 ical substratum. Space forbids an exhaustive 

 discussion of this interesting topic, but we must 

 say that the unequal distribution of these two 

 types of brains within a definite social group is 

 probably the fact which affords the most con- 

 clusive explanation of the so-called racial dif- 

 ferences. According to the predominance of 

 one or the other of those two mental types, 

 within the group, we have a different mental 

 tone in the community and these various shades 

 of mentality are, after all, the very essence of 

 racial dissimilarity. 



In the next chapter — the fourth — Mosso takes 

 up the problem of Democracy and Religion. He 

 is struck by the wonderful growth of Cathol- 

 icism in this country, a fact which is in har- 

 mony with the expansion of Catholicism in 

 Europe, and especially in England, within the 

 last fifty years. Seeking an explanation, Mosso 

 remarks that religion is necessary only for the 

 mentally weak — i. e., for the masses. A nation 

 of philosophers might do without it, just as the 

 intellectual elite does. But no religion can help 

 those who believe better than Catholicism be- 

 cause this latter appeals more vividly to the 

 emotional element, which is the very essence 

 of belief (p. 128). Protestantism is, like the 

 northern climates, gray and sad. There is an 

 element of dullness in it which is in striking 

 contrast with the warmth and life of Cathol- 

 icism, and since religions have always been, as 

 Mosso vigorously puts it, ' a form of festival ' 

 (una forma di festa) it is the one that appeals more 

 vividly to the senses which has the greater 

 power of propagation (p. 129). 



On the other hand, civilization makes men 

 more exquisitely excitable. This ' effeminating ^ 

 influence of civilization is also at work in the 

 expansion of Catholicism (p. 128). The tend- 

 ency to mysticism which is quite evident in 

 art and literature is a result of the increased 

 intensity of excitability brought about by the 

 refining influence of civilization. And mys- 

 ticism is fatal both to science and to Protestant- 

 ism. The clearness of Mosso' s position is some- 

 what obscured by the fact that he refers to 

 Catholicism as being both the religion of the 

 ignorant masses and the religion of the hyper- 

 cultivated mystical. Now, Catholicism can be 



